NUTS & BOLTS by Chris Mosley

April 2015

Welcome back everyone. It’s been quite a while since we have sent out a newsletter to the membership and it has been a busy time. As we move into 2015 we have to take a quick look back at 2014 to understand where the club stands both physically and financially.

2014 was a year to remember or forget, depending on which side of the fence you were on. The club, NNJR, saw ups and downs (mostly downs) during the 2014 season.

The year started with a poorly attended racing school in March. An event which set both NNJR and SJR back quite a bit. The very next event, the 12 Hour in April was a break even event. The Pocono races on Mother’s Day weekend lost money as they have for many a year now. Then before the June event at Lightning SJR made a stunning announcement that they were ending their involvement with the JRB. This came a quite a shock to most of us in NNJR. We quickly called several emergency meetings during the month of June to decide what NNJR’s position would be. After much debate and many conversations we decided it was best for the NNJR to also end its involvement with the JRB and drafted a letter to the same. We felt at the time that it would be right though to cover our share of any debt incurred by the JRB events that were held prior to the June decision to end involvement with the JRB.

The remaining races on the 2014 schedule, Summer Thunder and the JRRC, were held by SJR and each event lost a considerable amount of money.

In the end, NNJR wrote out a check to SJR for our portion of the losses for the events held prior to the June ending of the JRB and we provided extra monies to SJR in the name of good faith to help cover the losses. The total losses for 2015 were quite eye opening to say the least. This has left NNJR treasury in an uneasy position. We are solvent but just need to be cautious as we move forward.

The Solo program also had a year of ups and downs and in the end finished off the year down from the previous years.

During this period we lost focus on some of the other things we should have been doing, one of which, is to keep our members in the loop. Please accept the Boards deepest apologies for forgetting to keep our membership informed. We have decided that going forward we will publish a newsletter monthly to keep our members in the loop. We will be deciding at the next Board meeting as to whether it will go out before the Board meetings or just after.

The Board meets every second Tuesday of the month. All of the NNJR Board meetings are open to everyone to attend unless otherwise stated. We have been meeting at Stephnos Restaurant in Pompton Plains on Rt 23 South. As of this writing we are continuing to meet there at 7:00pm. We meet in the back room when it is available. The food there is great and it is a BYO restaurant so remember to bring your own if you plan on attending the Board meeting. If the location of the meeting changes we will be sure to let you know as far ahead of time as we can in case you were planning to attend.

So, where do we stand for 2015? There will be no Mother’s Day races at Pocono this year. We spent many hours over many months trying to negotiate with the folks at Pocono trying to get either a different date or a reduced rental fee for the Mother’s Day weekend. Our preference was to find another usable date. Unfortunately we were unable to get either so the Board made the decision due to the high cost of rental and the reduced entry on Mother’s Day Sunday to pass on the Mother’s Day date.

In 2015 there will only be one road racing event that NNJR will participate in. We will be working with Tri Region to put on the August 8/9 Divisional, MARRS, NARRC and NYSRRC race weekend at Pocono. We have been meeting with the Tri Region folks in Pennsylvania and in NJ for the last several months and planning for the 2015 event is well under way. We will be looking for volunteers to help out so please let us know if you are available to work the weekend or even just a day.

We will continue to have our monthly Board meetings and we will also have at least three general member diner/member meetings during the year. Time and place of the general member meetings yet to be determined.

Meanwhile our Solo program is up and running at the Meadowlands. They have several events scheduled in the coming months. The event dates are 4/6/2015, 6/6/2015, 8/1-2/2015 (the Major) and 8/8/2015. The cost is $55 for SCCA members and $65 for nonmembers.

Please provide us with some feedback on the newsletter or on what you think the region should be doing. We would like to hear from you, our members.

One last note, I am throwing my hat in the ring for Area 1 Director position that will be vacated by Dick Patullo at the end of 2015. He has served well and I have much respect for Dick. He has been the Area 1 Director for the past six years (each Director can serve a maximum of two three year terms and then must step down). The election takes place in November of this year. I am hoping I can count on all of you for your support.

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